There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words. To this chiefly it is owing that we find sects and parties in most branches of science [and politics]; and disputes that are carried on from age to age, without being brought to issue.
Interpretation
Ambiguity in language hinders our understanding and progress in knowledge and leads to persistent disputes.
In this quote, Thomas Reid argues that unclear language is a significant barrier to the advancement of knowledge. He suggests that the ambiguity of words produces confusion, which gives rise to divisions among people in various fields, including science and politics, resulting in unresolved disputes that can endure for generations.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of clear communication in science.
The laws of nature are the rules according to which the effects are produced; but there must be a cause which operates according to these rules. The laws of navigation never navigated a ship. The rules of architecture never built a house.
It appears evident, therefore, that those actions only can truly be called virtuous, and deserving of moral approbation, which the agent believed to be right, and to which he was influenced, more or less, by that belief.
Every indication of wisdom, taken from the effect, is equally an indication of power to execute what wisdom planned.
But when I call for a hero, out comes my lazy old self; so I never know who I am, nor how many I am or will be. I'd love to be able to touch a bell and summon the real me, because if I really need myself, I mustn't disappear.
Feminism starts out being very simple, and it ends up being a world view that questions hierarchy altogether.
Grace is the pleasure of God to magnify the worth of God by giving sinners the right and power to delight in God without obscuring the glory of God.
Nothing is more natural than grief, no emotion more common to our daily experience. It's an innate response to loss in a world where everything is impermanent.
Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.
Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.
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